Watch the Comet Fly
by Kribble the Mighty
Summary: What if...Luigi had arrived at the great Comet Observatory before Mario? If he had to save the universe? Why does he know what everything is in this brave new world? My first fanfic, so please R&R!
1. Brave New World

Watch The Comet Fly

A fanfic by

kribble the mighty

Author's Note: This is my first fanfic. I plan to write a whole bunch of stories with these characters, which may happen, but it may also peter out (like so many other of my ideas), and school and stuff may screw up my writing but if I do write them, which I hope I will, then I sincerely hope that you will read it and review it. Thanks! (By the way, if you flame, you will be ignored, so don't even try it please.) And now, please enjoy! (One more thing: the beginning is mainly a highly dramatized version of the Super Mario Galaxy opening with both Mario and Luigi instead of just Mario; after that part, it's all Luigi except for one part when Luigi rescues Mario.)

The summer wind blew through the Mushroom Kingdom, and a man in green sat alone on his roof, looking up at the blood-red sunset in the infinite field of sky. He was not especially noticeable, except for three distinguishing things: a bright green paperboy's cap with an L emblazoned in white on its crest, a green sweatshirt with blue overalls, and an impressively thick mustache. His eyes were faded blue, and they had somewhat of a wistful look about them he watched the tangerine sun sink through the darkening sky. He heard someone approaching, and looked down at his front path quickly, seeing another man dressed similarly, except the newcomer was dressed in red, had an "M" on his cap, and was somewhat shorter and stouter than the man in green. "Hey, bro!" said the man on the roof, waving to his brother. "Hi, Luigi!" said the brother. For that was the man's name: Luigi, Mario's brother and partner in times of great need for the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi slowly crawled across the slippery roof to the trapdoor that led down into the attic, and climbed down the ladder. He stretched, and then dropped down from the attic into his own room. Making his way downstairs, he noticed, as he came into the living room that Mario was agitated. "What's wrong, Mario?" asked Luigi. "Well…I'm worried about the Star Festival," replied Mario uneasily. "I have a feeling something terrible is going to happen…something Bowser-related. Do you remember what happened last summer?" "Oh yeah, the Isle Delfino incident," recalled Luigi, "that was unlucky, especially as it came right at the start of what _should_ have been a relaxing vacation." "Yeah, but Luigi…I think something even worse is going to happen. I just don't feel right about this," said Mario uncertainly. "Okay, well then, why don't we go together? I didn't really want to go, but if you feel that strongly about it, we should probably make sure we're both there to stop it before it gets really bad. Even if it is Bowser-related, if we come prepared, then we should be able to stop his plans before they get off the ground," said Luigi in a reasonable tone of voice. Mario agreed, and, the following night, they set out together for the Star Festival. As they moved through the celebrations, grabbing the shining star bits left and right, something ominous caught Luigi's eye. A fleet of airships, flying the flag of Bowser. Luigi immediately went into full-blown panic mode. He wasn't sure what he was going to do; but he did know that he had to warn Mario now. "Mario!" he hissed in his brother's ear. "Look!" Mario's eyes followed the path of Luigi's finger, and halted upon the airships, buzzing through the sky like a horde of locusts. His pupils dilated, and he set off running full tilt toward Peach's Castle. Luigi hesitated a moment, and then followed, at an even faster run. Just as they both entered the castle courtyard, the noise of the airships shattered the air around them. Cannonballs shaped like meteors crashed through the town and the two brothers ran even faster. But it was too late; Bowser had deployed an odd-looking ship with a sinister appearance. It hovered over the castle for a fraction of a second, and then three massive lasers blasted out of nodes on the bottom. It cut through the land around the castle, severely loosing its hold on the earth, and the airships shot wicked black chains just as Luigi and Mario jumped inside the castle. The brothers were thrown into the air, out the open front door, and onto the bridge. Luigi opened one of his eyes cautiously, looked down, and immediately felt giddy. The airships had moved out of the atmosphere of the planet, and were moving into deep space, dragging the castle, the helpless Mario Bros., and Princess Peach along with them. But with the suddenness of a summer rainstorm, Kamek, who was flying around the castle making sure all loose ends were tied, spotted the Bros. hanging on for dear life to the bridge. With an evil cackle, Kamek aimed an unpleasant-looking spell at Mario, who was instantly thrown off the castle at the explosion, and just barely managed to get one hand on the bridge. "Mario!" Luigi screamed, and hurled himself towards his brother, trying to hoist him back up, where they both could, hopefully, defeat Kamek. Kamek, who was unaccustomed to such bravery from Luigi, snarled and blasted another explosive spell at him. He never had a chance…

II.

"L-man." "_L-man_." _"__**L-man!**_" Luigi slowly came to. He looked around and saw a bunny standing over him. Now isn't that odd, he thought. A bunny, talking. And then all the memories of the previous day came rushing back. He jumped up, shaking. "Wh-where a-am I?" he inquired of the rabbit. He was terrified that something had happened to him or his brother – that he was in some afterlife right now, or that his brother was. "It's all right," said the bunny soothingly. "You're safe." "Well, I sure as hell don't feel safe!" Luigi snapped. " Tell me where I am!" The rabbit smiled mischievously. "I will tell you…but you'll have to catch me first!" Giggling, the animal began hopping away from Luigi at high speed. Luigi tore after the bunny, a manic glint in his eye. He was _going_ to find out where he was, and what happened to his brother, and be damned to all the bunnies in the world. Finally, his hands trapped the rabbit, and the creature agreed to talk. "You're in the Gateway," said the bunny unhelpfully. "The Gateway to what?" said Luigi, annoyed. "The Gateway to the Comet Observatory." said the animal. And before Luigi's eyes, the rabbit spun in midair, and melted into an adorable star-like being. _Luma_, said Luigi's subconscious brain to his conscious, and also said, a second later, _ How in the Mushroom Kingdom do I know _that? He had no time to contemplate these thoughts, however, as more Lumas appeared out of nowhere, all of them saying, "Come see Mama! Come see Mama!" and with surprising strength, they carried Luigi to the top of the tower, which was at the apex of the small planetoid. As he approached the balcony, he could see a glowing figure. As the small star beings set him down, the figure turned towards him.

His heart stopped.

It was Princess Peach…

No…, he corrected himself. It was not Princess Peach. But this girl looked eerily similar to her. Her dress was a light blue, she carried a star wand, wore odd earrings that looked like a mix of star and cross, and her hair completely obscured her left eye, but other than that, she could have been Peach's twin. Now that he looked more closely, however, she looked less like Princess Peach than he had originally thought. Her face was more delicate, thinner and looked sadder. She spoke, and he shook himself out of these reflections soon enough to catch her last word. " – you." Luigi looked quizzically at her and asked, "I'm sorry, what was that?" She blinked and looked perplexed. She said slowly, "I _said_, wayfarer, welcome, I have a question I would like to ask of you." She had an odd mode of speech, at least odd to Luigi, who was used to informal language, even from the Princess. Toadsworth was a different matter, but Luigi didn't really talk to Toadsworth much unless the situation required it; Luigi winced as he saw he had missed the girl's comment again. "Um…I'm sorry, I missed your question." he said sheepishly. She looked annoyed for a moment, but she quickly composed herself. She said in a grand tone of voice, "I require your assistance in a matter of the utmost importance. Please follow me." She climbed onto an odd, star-shaped device, and it launched her through the heavens to a small, metallic, planetoid. "Easier said then done," muttered Luigi, looking apprehensively at the strange machine, but he climbed on nonetheless.

Nothing happened.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he said, irritated. "You _spin_," said the Luma who had found Luigi. "And how am I meant to do that?" demanded Luigi, growing more irritated by the second. "Here, I'll help you," said the Luma, which happened to be silver, and he dove under Luigi's hat. Seconds later, Luigi knew how to spin, and did so, causing the device to send him flying through open space. As he flew, he suddenly knew the name of the machine, Launch Star. He was beginning to be frightened. How did he know all this? He had no time to think about this because at that moment, he landed on the planetoid. The girl was standing there. "Hello," she said sarcastically, "how kind of you to appear at last." Luigi, who was angered by her arrogant manner, opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by the girl. She said, in an urgent tone of voice, "Time is running out. You must retrieve the Grand Star, so we can return power to the observatory. After we have done that, I will tell you more about me and my business. Now go. Hurry!" Without waiting for a response, she pushed Luigi onto another, smaller, and somewhat less obtrusive star, which she quickly told him was called a Sling Star, and he launched to a larger, more ominous planetoid. As soon as he landed, he saw a pipe leading into the center of the planet. Unpleasant visions swam through his befuddled mind of what could lie in wait inside the spiky metallic orb of a planet, and he groaned aloud. Nonetheless, he jumped toward the pipe and slid inside. That was where the adventure really began…


	2. The Watcher of Stars

III.

Luigi leaped out of the pipe, and stood with his fists up, facing whatever it was.

Nothing was there.

He lowered his hands in relief. So, it wasn't as bad as he had thought. All he saw, from his field of vision, were a couple of Goombas and some spiky moving platforms. They seemed to be guarding something. He looked around, perplexed. When he couldn't see anything around him, he looked up.

Luigi's jaw dropped.

There was a huge Power Star – _Grand Star_, he thought to himself – that was being drained of any power it might have had. Luigi's hands curled into fists in rage. It always had to be Bowser, didn't it. He couldn't just steal a Power Star – he had to strip it of any value it might have had first. Well, Luigi knew how fix him and his devilish machine. If Bowser kept to his old mentality, he would have been too impatient to wait for the machine to be ready, and put it into operation the day before the Koopa Troopas finished it. Heaven knew why. If this was true, the machine should still have a flaw somewhere. He felt in his pockets for anything that could be used, and surprisingly, there was a small sliver of stone from in his pocket – he had gotten it, he supposed, when the bridge blew up. Carefully approaching the device from the side, he put a hand on the emitter, and began feeling for cracks. He felt his way along the side, and one of his fingers found a rough patch. He crouched down and looked at it, and whistled in amazement. The crack ran all the way down the side of the machine. "It's like he _wants _you to defeat him…" he said, astounded at such carelessness. He wondered vaguely for a moment whether Bowser was just stupid, and then jammed the stone into the crack. The hastily constructed machine collapsed instantly, releasing the Grand Star. Luigi jumped up and grabbed it.

His vision went white

then black

with stars

and he could see the universe out of one eye

Sensing that Luigi was in no fit condition to get back himself, the Grand Star picked him up in a force field and flew to the Comet Observatory, depositing Luigi in front of Rosalina, and joining the beacon. The maintainer of the cosmos bent worriedly over Luigi, and a small black Luma looked over her shoulder.

Time passed…

and passed…

and passed…

and

IV.

Luigi came to for the second time that day, feeling unpleasantly groggy, like he had just run a marathon and a girl in blue was waking him up --

He sat up. Wait. Where was he? This didn't look like the Mushroom Kingdom. Or the planet he remembered being on. He saw Lumas all around him, and he suddenly recalled what the silver Luma had said earlier in the day. _You're in the gateway. The Gateway to the Comet Observatory_. Maybe this was the fabled comet that passed over the Mushroom Kingdom every hundred years. That would explain a lot, including how Bowser got the power to build his fleet of airships, and a new galaxy. He had drained the power from the Observatory's Grand Stars. But his explanations stopped short of explaining what to do, and he knew the girl in blue might have an answer. He stopped the nearest Luma and asked, "Where is your…Mama?" The Luma replied, "Mama? She's where she always is – with Polari, near the landing platform, and the map of the galaxies." Luigi thanked the small starry creature, and walked a short distance away, to the main hub of the Observatory. The girl spotted him when he was two feet away; she hadn't seen him sooner as she had been in deep conversation with a black Luma. "Ah, excellent, you are awake at last. I have many things to say to you, not least of which is to thank you. You have saved our Observatory from destruction. For now," she added in a darker tone of voice. "By the way, I don't believe we were ever properly introduced. I am Rosalina, and this is Polari, my assistant. Who are you?" she said politely, though with an air of trying to hurry the introductions. Luigi's already tired mind decided to cut to the chase: "I'm Luigi, and I've got some questions for you. Number one: Why am I here? Number two: How do I stop Bowser? And last but not least: da-dadada-daaaa! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME!?" "QUIET!" screamed Rosalina. Luigi fell silent at once, shocked at the command in that voice. Rosalina took a deep breath, and looked to be steadying herself, and continued: "I will answer your questions, in order. Number one: You are here because I brought you here after I found you on my planet. Number two: You need to get enough Grand Stars and Power Stars to power the Observatory enough to enable our flight to the center of the universe. And number three: I DO NOT KNOW!" She looked annoyed that there was something she didn't know about in her immediate area. "I have never seen a person react like that to a Grand Star. You are someone special, that is for sure." She studied him for a moment longer, and then shook her head. "In any case, you must retrieve several more stars and another Grand Star if we are to open another dome. Come, follow me." She led the way into a dome and Luigi followed behind, thinking about all that she had told him. And just before he entered the dome, Luigi stopped. This is it, my last chance to back out, and never know the truth about all this. He considered this for a moment.

He then went inside.


	3. The Living Universe

Author's Note: For anyone who reads this, I'm sorry it took me so long to get this up! I was being lazy…

V.

As Luigi entered the smallish dome, he looked around the interior. There was nothing of interest, except for a blue star machine floating in midair above his and Rosalina's heads – _Pull Star_, his subconscious said. He was getting used to these odd premonitions by now, but still found them unsettling. Had he been here before? He couldn't remember it if he had been. Even if he had somehow had previous knowledge of these ingenious machines and Grand Power Stars, and then forgotten it all, why had he reacted so strongly to the Grand Star? As he thought about this, a dim memory kindled in the depths of his brain – a black something, a gold something, and something in between them. Well, he thought wryly to himself, even if I wanted to remember I couldn't make heads or tails of that memory. And I'm not even sure if I want to. He looked over at Rosalina, and saw her watching him expectantly. He must have looked confused, because she sighed, and pointed toward the Pull Star. "Make as if to grab it," she explained, "and it will drag you into the visible galaxies map. There is only one galaxy open at this time, I believe. The Good Egg Galaxy. It should not prove too hard. Retrieve all the stars you can, and once you defeat your enemy, or your enemy's son for a Grand Star, another dome will open, and so on, through all the Observatory's domes. After you have retrieved every star that was stolen from us, I will be able to take you to your enemy's headquarters at the center of the universe. If you defeat him there, you will save everyone that has been taken by him, and the universe will be rescued from the brink of destruction. Are you up to the task?" Luigi hesitated…

But just for a moment.

"Yes."

And with that, he floated up to the Pull Star, and blasted off to the Good Egg Galaxy, beginning an amazing adventure that would take him throughout the universe to get back the lost Power Stars of the Comet Observatory.

Author's Note: How are you liking the story so far? Remember, if you like it, or have a criticism that's not just flames, please review the chapter involved.

Anyway, just a quick note on the story here. I am not going to describe Luigi getting every Star for obvious reasons, and I made alterations to Nintendo's version of the story for my own purposes. Sorry if that annoys you. I am going to skip ahead three months to the moment when Luigi gets the final Power Star (we'll just say that it's the Matter Splatter Galaxy Star, as that is the last oneshot galaxy.) (Oh, btw, I don't own any of this stuff except new elements of the plot. It's all Nintendo's.)

Three Months Later

Luigi jumped, careful to avoid the black emptiness on either side of the thin path he was walking on, and grabbed the final Star of the Comet Observatory.

"YES!!!" he said, elated, and long-jumped out of the Garden, and down to the main galaxy map, where Rosalina and Polari were waiting, expectant and excited.

"I've got it! I've got the last Power Star!" Luigi sang. He snatched Polari out of the air, and hugged him. He heard Rosalina cough behind him, though not too coldly, and Luigi let Polari go, apologizing to the Luma as he did so. " Are you prepared to go to the center of the universe?" said Rosalina solemnly, looking straight at him. "Yes!" said Luigi eagerly. "Then prepare to hold on tight." Rosalina advised with a militant gleam in her eye. Luigi caught the gleam, and grimaced. Something unpleasantly bumpy was about to happen, if he knew Rosalina well enough. Which he did, by now. He had found out a lot about her and the Comet Observatory during his ventures into deep space, with which he had the sparse help of the Toad Brigade, who Luigi personally did not think much of. However, beggars couldn't be choosers. The Toad Brigade had certainly found some Stars, but they had not been the only ones. When Luigi had come to the Ghostly Galaxy, he had found a small painting after defeating Bouldergeist. Of Mario. Banging his fists and trying to get out of the picture. Just like old times, Luigi had thought to himself. He had luckily found Professor Elvin Gadd on a nearby planetoid, and he had set Mario to rights. Mario had helped a little, but he had been too exhausted by his fall through space to find more than three stars Luigi had missed. He jerked his mind away from these recollections, and remembered too late why he had wanted to hang on. The Observatory was transformed into a great starship, surrounded by a glimmering blue force field, and began to speed through the great open space of the cosmos, toward the center of the universe.

And naturally, Luigi was plastered against the galaxies map, rather uncomfortably. He could see Rosalina smirking and beginning to giggle at him, and he let out a muffled expletive. This was not going to help his chances of gaining any sort of respect from her. She was irritating sometimes, but she really was worth having the respect of. He thought of Mario hamming up all his adventures during dinner with her and Polari, and then grinned sourly. Rosalina had acquired quite a high opinion of Mario during their first dinner after Luigi saved him, and Mario had conveniently forgotten to include Luigi's part in all his adventures – he could never control himself around an attractive woman. Unfortunately for Mario, one of the Toads who had been helping Luigi when he had won that mansion was the leader of the Toad Brigade, and he had been invited to dinner as deference to his help to Luigi. To Mario's dismay, he remarked loudly, "Wait, Mario, are you forgetting that time that Luigi saved you from King Boo in the haunted mansion? Boy, you sure blew it that time! I think that was the only time one of you had to rescue the other!" As anyone could imagine, Mario's prestige in Rosalina's eyes had decreased rather rapidly after that. She had gained more respect for Luigi as well.

Not enough, of course, to stop from bursting out laughing at Luigi pasted comically to the galaxies map.

Luigi scowled as Rosalina wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, and asked rather shortly, "Are you done now?"

"Ye-he-hes," panted Rosalina, trying to keep a lid on her mirth, "it's just you look so _amusing_ while you are thrown across the ma-ha-ha –" She broke off again, physically unable to control her laughter. She finally got control of herself, and turned to Luigi, who had finally managed to get himself down off the map. "Well?" he asked, a little irritably.

Rosalina regained her solemn composure, though a trace of her smile remained on her face as she said, "Now you must enter the castle. There is a warp field within; it should take you to Bowser's and your brother's special one's location. Now, go! For the fate of the living universe rests in your hands."

"I understand."

She smiled, and waved her wand, summoning stardust to construct bridge pieces so that Luigi could cross to the conquered Peach's Castle, which would, if Bowser was not stopped, house a twisted galaxy inside it. Luigi hesitated for a moment – and then Mario came hurtling out of nowhere. "Bro!" yelled Mario in Luigi's face. "I'm coming with you! I need save Peach!" Luigi agreed, and just like that night so long ago when they set out for the Star Festival together, the two siblings walked side by side into the battered fortress that had once been Princess Peach's Castle.


	4. Journey through the Dark

Hoo…boy. Sorry for the extremely, _extremely _long delay between chapters, my faithful (or unfaithful) reader(s). I was merely being a lazy, writer's-block bum. Without further ado, I now present to you the fourth chapter in _The Saga of Stars_. (Great name for the series, huh?) – Kribble the Mighty (Really, I'm sorry. This thing has been out for around two years now, and this is only the fourth chapter of the story, although it is the second to last.)

VI.

Luigi dashed up the glittering walkway with Mario hot on his heels. He saw the door was ajar in the ruined castle, he _jumped_…

spun

through

no space

at all

…And landed more or less squarely on the cold gray stone of a broken fortress. He looked around warily, and then relaxed.

That is, until Mario landed squarely on Luigi's head.

"Whoops… sorry, Bro," Mario chuckled nervously, an embarrassed expression on his face. "Right," growled Luigi after he had managed to stand up. "Ya know, Mario, you're not going to help things by smashing my skull in,"

"Hey, who knows," Mario joked weakly, "maybe you've got a 1-Up inside your noggin."

Luigi did not even crack a smile at this feeble attempt at humor, and Mario quailed.

"Come on, let's go, " said Luigi to the silver Luma, pointedly ignoring Mario. The Luma bobbed up and down a couple times, and squeaked, "Yeah!" in agreement, and entered Luigi's body to enable his spin move. Luigi marched off, and jumped into a spotlight moving along the gray stone wall.

The next thing he knew, everything shifted sideways. The floor he had been standing on was now a wall, and the wall was now the floor. "Whoa!" yelled Luigi, who had been unprepared for this sudden 90-degree shift in perspective. "Wow, that looks awesome!" said Mario excitedly. "Let me try!" "At least wait until I've gotten to the first platform, Bro!" Luigi said exasperatedly. Mario subsided with nothing more than a couple of mutters about _who was the one who saved the Mushroom Kingdom last time? Not Luigi!_

Luigi rolled his eyes and continued. He kept standing in the spotlight, but he had to suppress a wild urge to jump out and see what happened. A couple of seconds brought him to the first platform, and he stepped on it with relief.

The overeager Mario quickly jumped in the spotlight, and had trouble staying in. Only then did Luigi realize the amount of conditioning that the months of grabbing elusive stars had given him.

The next second he turned ashen as he realized that Mario had not been as successful as he had.

Even as Mario spun to grim death, he screamed up to his brother, "Don't worry! I've got a 1-Up on me!" Luigi sagged with relief. No matter how annoying and women-monopolizing his brother might be, he was terribly glad that he had thought to bring a 1-Up Mushroom. The odd thing about the mushrooms was the fact that they actually reversed death, but if you were Player 2, they were also a one-way ticket back to the Comet Observatory. _Which means I'm not going to get any help_, thought Luigi, and gulped. Nonetheless, he ventured forward into Bowser's warped domain.

VII.

Luigi shivered as he climbed onto the warp for the next planetoid. It looked like it was in Bowser's usual style – hot lava and unpleasantly thin moving platforms. It took a very agile foot to avoid third-degree burns. Luigi grimaced as a wave of heat washed over him. Whether he fell in the lava or not, he didn't think he was going to be able to withstand the high temperature for long. He began to run along a continuously receding platform – _definitely in Bowser's style_, thought Luigi dryly, and then he yelped, ducked, and just missed getting hit by a fireball. _Thank you, Bowser_, thought Luigi more sourly this time, just as he reached the end. The rest of the small fireball planet was a cakewalk; just a couple incredibly fast-sinking platforms and he was home free. Just a few jumps left and- _ouch_! Ohcrapohcrapohcrap. He had just stepped off a platform into the extremely hot lava. He managed to control the pain after a couple of seconds clutching his burned foot and swearing, but he felt significantly weakened as the warp took him to his next destination.

As Luigi stepped off the warp onto another small platform, he noticed a very significant drop in the temperature. He looked down, and sure enough, snow and ice festooned the tiny planet. He stepped on to the ice, and started to run on its precarious surface, because he wouldn't put it past Bowser to make this even more difficult than it already was. He was proved right as he saw platforms vanishing behind him. He jumped up like a scorched tiger, and doubled his running speed, dashing as fast as he could to the oh-so-far-away warp, and then he noticed something interesting but dangerous. A 1-Up was sitting on a nearby platform. It was a surefire way to make sure he made it to Bowser, but if he went off course for it… He looked down and shuddered as the icy grip of the unforgiving planetoid beckoned. Even with his overblown caution, Luigi knew the importance of having as many of the little green mushrooms. So, with one great leap, he flew over the raised platform in front of him and landed right on top of the life-saving fungus, collecting it. But his touchdown was faulty, due to his burned foot, and for a moment, he seemed to stare at death in the face as he skidded on the extreme edge of the slippery platform. He regained his balance, but he saw that the platforms were catching up to him. The one he had jumped from had just disappeared, and the one between it and the one Luigi stood on was about to do the same. _Nothing for it_, he thought, and turned his back to the escape platform above him, bent forward, and somersaulted directly into the warp. He watched the last of the platforms disappear as he safely floated up, and relief flooded through him.

Relief is such a passing emotion, though, and soon it faded altogether with the realization that he was in a very untenable position, what with even more disappearing platforms, and the need to wall jump very fast to avoid a drawn-out death in another one of Bowser's black holes. There was nothing for it, but to _jump! – jump! – _and again _jump!_ – into a reverse gravity zone. A sigh escaped Luigi. _Gravity?_ he thought. _Really?_ It had used to be so simple. One jump, two jump, hit a couple blocks, and you've saved the princess. _But I need to stop woolgathering_, he told himself sternly as a line of fireballs just missed his other, undamaged shoe. He studied the rest of the line of fireballs. _Bowser always was one for the puzzles… although that might just have been Kamek's irritating amount of brains interfering_, he pondered wryly. But his window was disappearing so he needed to go – now. So again _jump! _and _jump!_ and _jump!_, and he was away, spinning through the cosmos yet again. An unpleasant sight met his eyes. A tube of lava, not unlike the one in Melty Molten Galaxy, was stamped with Boswer's sigil, and absolutely bristling with Bullet Bills. Luigi _hated_ Bullet Bills. There had been a horrible incident when he was younger involving a can of diced Super Mushrooms, an interestingly obvious bomb, and an enraged Banzai Bill… _No, no and no! I am __not__ going to think about that!_

"G-g-g-gah," stuttered Luigi incoherently. "Th-th-th-th-Thwomps…" He hated Thwomps, mainly because of what they had done to his teddy bear when he was two, but at least he was past that hellhole now. But all lesser fears were put to flight by the sight of the sickly green and icy white of Bowser's stronghold. Of course, as soon as he stepped onto the floating stairway to Bowser's stone citadel, he had to be moving, because of Bowser Jr.'s nasty habit of firing meteors at casual visitors. Not that Luigi _was_ a casual visitor, but the idea was there. Stopping only to collect a 1-Up Mushroom and a Life Shroom from side ways, he made his way up the stairs to confront Bowser, the Koopa King…

Oke-doke! I'm finally finished with this chapter! So, the next part is up to you readers, if I still have any after that interminable pause of many months. If you want me to write in Luigi's fight with Bowser, say so in your reviews, and I'll do the best I can. If you don't, then tell me not to in your reviews, and I won't. I also won't if I get no votes for the other way, but even if you don't care, please review! It's such an ego booster for me writing this story. Thanks! – Kribble the Mighty

(By the way, I know I missed the sand planetoid, but I only realized that _after_ I had written the part about the crystal-jumping thingie, so I'm just gonna leave that out. If you want me to add it in, _please_ just say so in reviews.)


End file.
